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Web design trends for 2016

Web design trends for 2016

Web design trends continue to evolve rapidly due to all the user behavior data available to us today. We know now that an engaging website is a key factor for website retention which impacts bounce rate. Having a website with great visuals and content is important, but users today expect more. Storytelling has been front and center for web design trends the past few years and it continues to evolve for 2016. Websites are expected to be personal to not only convey your brand or product story but to make a connection. How are connections being made?

Predicted web design trends for 2016 include:

Less images and more illustration:

Images – more specifically stock images can appear to be very generic. Oftentimes stock images are purchased by multiple customers and applied throughout various websites. Some things to consider are that the average adult spends more than 20 hours online a week so it’s only a matter of time before users run into a generic image online and a website can appear inauthentic and cookie cutter. Personalized images on the other hand, although much preferred than generic stock images still lack the unique the signature style of illustration in comparison. Illustration requires a personalized process; an action plan, conceptualization, sketching (multiple revisions) before the actual illustration is created. This takes time, sweat and tears and users seem to appreciate the effort and dedication from illustration. Most importantly illustration can be invented and there are no limits to fully express and convey and make a connection with the users. Web design trends dictate unique illustrations as part of the UX strategy in 2016.

See examples below

Personalized (graphic designer’s hand)

Illustration

BRAVE color & typography:

We’ve seen more color being applied to websites in the past few years but now web design trends as a result of long scroll pages & parallax effects require a story & strategy and bold colors can help so they appear to be on the rise! Typography is also being used more creatively. Large bold fonts, different fonts and all kinds of font combinations are fun and can be engaging. See website using brave web fonts.

Background videos:

Fun and creative videos are really going a long way in 2016. The objective should include personalizing your brand and making a connection. We’ve seen brands use humor or documentary videos to attempt to convey their bran story with users. Whatever your creative video idea may be, being authentic and transparent seems to be a winning digital strategy users are seeking. See a video background sample here.

Killer animation effects:

Poor little kitty trying to get out of this blog! This is a bit tricky because animation may slow down your website’s load speed if the files are not compressed well among other variables but if you can achieve this correctly animations can rule and are being rolled out a lot more as part of a web design trend strategy in 2016. UX Research indicated users can get bored quickly with just text right which means adding some animation to keep them entertained as apposed to regular images are a big plus in 2016.